BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell said that an on-air discussion of the issue on the UK-based network the previous day resulted in the same outcome, as the feed suddenly went black, according to The Independent.
Beijing has found itself under increasing scrutiny, particularly from the administration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for its vocational training centres that are aimed at limiting religious extremism, as well as terrorism in the region, according to The Independent.
McDonell documented the blackout as he recorded the program, primarily covering the ongoing state visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Beijing and the Riyadh monarch's talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
McDonell documented the moment in a tweet: "Here's the moment China's censors pull the BBC World TV feed this morning as I'm speaking about the visiting crown prince of Saudi Arabia and the possibility of him raising the mass extrajudicial detention camps holding many hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uyghurs," cited by Independent.co.uk.
— Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) February 22, 2019
A replay of the same program one hour later — over the same state-controlled network — ran without incident, however.
